Featured

Rob Peters

Affectionately known by locals as “little Germany”, because of its popularity with German tourists, Somerset West is a grand mix of wine farms, top–notch restaurants, majestic golf estates and adrenaline-inducing adventure activities. More of a town than a neighbourhood, you will need to set aside a couple of days to truly explore this beautiful area.

Featured

Rob Peters

On Saturday 28 March homes and businesses across the world will switch off their lights for an hour in support of Earth Hour. All across Cape Town, locals will lend their support by flicking the switch between 8.30pm and 9.30pm – here are 5 ways to celebrate Earth Hour in the Mother City.

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If there is one thing Capetonians are good at – other than socialising, of course – it’s braaing.
Whether it’s meat or fish, you can be sure that on a spectacular summer’s day (or even on a winter’s day), you will find us gathered around the fire, enjoying each other’s company, the tantalising aroma of meat on the grill and our breathtaking city views.

If, like mine, your heart beats faster at the feel of a goose down duvet, the smell of lilies, Molton Brown hand cream and the taste of the perfectly poached egg, these boutique hotels are right up your alley.

Cape Town can, with some careful planning, deliver a really enjoyable holiday experience for visitors with special access needs. Whilst we have some distance to go to being a completely Universally Accessible (UA) destination, awareness is on the rise and with it the number of improvements made to our city.

Big, small, BIG - size does not define a design hotel. It is the meeting place of form and function; a style that is unique, technology that is responsive and an environmentally considerate build. Whether your design preference is modern, classic or retro, Cape Town caters to all tastes.

One hundred pounds will get you a one-star hotel room in New York and two stars in London or Venice. In Cape Town, on average, you’ll get a four-star hotel room for £100 a night. Here’s a selection ranging from luxurious guesthouses to comfortable hotel rooms and top of the range backpackers with a healthy dose of comfort, if not downright glamour.

Walking toward Winchester Mansions, with the Atlantic Ocean stretched out to our right and the clouds folding over Table Mountain to the left, the promise of a 5-course wine-paired meal was the highlight of our day.

Even the word picnic is loaded with nostalgia; for me it holds memories of homemade frikkadels, chicken drumsticks and large cold drinks enjoyed with friends and family in special places.
Your picnic basket may have changed, as mine has. The frikkadels and drumsticks are from the deli and the chilled drink is more likely to be a local wine. What does remain the same is sharing this time with loved ones, in places that leave me feeling inspired and relaxed.

Did you know that Cape Town is one of the largest cities in the world in terms of surface area? It exceeds cities like London, Buenos Aires, Moscow, Kuala Lumpur, Rio de Janeiro and many more in sheer size.
Add to space the elements of beauty – the city of Cape Town is situated in the smallest and richest of the world’s six floral kingdoms – and cultural diversity and you are met with a city where inspiration lurks behind every corner, waiting to be discovered. Pack your favourite road trip tracks; whether it is Creedence Clearwater Revival who inspired the theme of this blog or local sounds, a map and let the open road take you where it will.

The Climate Smart Cape Town Pavilion has won the best outdoor and best overall stand in the Climate Change Response Expo at COP17. The pavilion, constructed from 1884 plastic milk crates and more than 22,000 plastic bottles, is a completely sustainable structure that will be dismantled after COP17, with all materials re-used.

Cape Point has captivated travellers since sighted by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488 and continues to call, amongst others, nature lovers, adventurers and photographers to its shores. Few destinations boast a more scenic journey, all the way along the coast to the southwestern tip of Africa. We wanted to share some of the sights and moments captured by the wide lenses of our visitors.

Cape Town is one of only three cities shortlisted for the World Design Capital 2014 title, along with Dublin (Ireland) and Bilbao (Spain).
Byron Qually, director of …XYZ Design, an award-winning design firm globally recognised for its leading and innovative design solutions, shared with us how Cape Town has both informed and inspired safe and environmentally friendly designs.

Mist rolling over Lion’s Head, photo courtesy Shaen Adey
“This is a pretty and singular town; it lies at the foot of an enormous wall (the Table Mountain), which reaches to the clouds, and makes a most imposing barrier – Cape Town is a great inn, on the great highway to the east; an extraordinary number of houses are occupied as boarding houses, in one of which I am now settled…”
So wrote one of the world’s most important natural scientists, Charles Darwin, in 1836 to his sister Catherine of his visit to Cape Town.

La Chocolaterie Maya, the setting for the movie Chocolat, exists for me as the perfect chocolaterie. The deep aroma of cocoa swirling around, antique tiles on the floor, glass pots with their rich bounty of glistening dark, milk and white chocolate adorned with Maraschino cherries, almonds and sugared fruit and yes, if I’m honest … Johnny Depp casually leaning against the doorframe.

A ball sails through the posts as The Vodacom Stormers build a lead. Photograph: Aslam Levy.
The first recorded rugby game in South Africa took place on Green Point Common in 1862, and on Saturday, 40 000 supporters witnessed the inaugural rugby match at the newly built Cape Town Stadium on Green Point Common.

January is home to the J&B Met and South African horse racing at its best. The thrill of betting on your favourite horse can only be rivalled by the pleasure of draping yourself in haute couture and sipping sparkling wine with the who’s who of the social scene.
How to spend the day before the event? Here are some ideas for a perfectly glamorous day that will see you looking stylish and “walking into the party like you were walking on to a yacht”, to quote Carly Simon.

With hit songs ‘Lost in France’, ‘It’s a Heartache’, ‘Holding out for a Hero’ and ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’, and more than 100 million records sold during her career, it is little wonder that Bonnie Tyler is regarded as the ‘First Lady of Rock’. She will be performing at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on 6 and 7 September 2013. Read our interview with her and learn about her desire to visit Table Mountain, what inspires her musically and her secret ‘80s crush.

Photo provided by the Cape Town Opera
Cape Town Opera launched their 2011 season to a full house at the Artscape Theatre on February 2, 2011. It was a surprisingly diverse audience, with both sophisticated operagoers and hip, young opera fans bearing testament to the success of the opera’s enc!re programme, aimed at making opera accessible to young professionals who love the art and enjoy networking in the city’s trendiest spots (while making conversation about contraltos and cabalettas over cocktails). Host and MC Alan Committie even commented at one point in the evening on what a ridiculously good-looking audience it was.

Design Indaba 2008, photo courtesy Sebastian Denef
In a month dedicated to design on Time Out Tourist, we end February 2010 with a question. When was the last time you were moved by a truly great design? And yes, the design of your golf course counts, as does that fabulous wire art piece you bought for your home. Good design makes our lives easier, more comfortable, more beautiful and often, our experiences more enriching.

Cape Town is on the shortlist for the World Design Capital 2014. It now stands alongside just two other cities – Dublin (Ireland) and Bilbao (Spain) – in the race to earn the World Design Capital title. The announcement is pivotal for Cape Town’s reputation as a destination that has adopted design for transformation and social cohesion.
Cape Town Tourism is a proud supporter of the bid for World Design Capital 2014 and will be featuring a series of inspiring, design-focused blogs.
We sat down to chat with Iain Harris, MD of Coffeebeans Routes, tour operating company with a niche in creative and cultural urban experiences.

Delegates of COP17 were met with a warm Kwa-Zulu Natal welcome, from the traditional Zulu dancers at King Shaka Airport to the Climate Change Response Expo (CCR) exhibition area and food court, and beyond, in Durban.

The interior of Vanilla
October and November 2009 brought several sensational newcomers to the world of luxury living in Cape Town. The Cape Quarter has become my new favourite haunt for décor shopping, simply browsing and grazing from one restaurant to the other.

Lewis Pugh at the North Pole in 2007
Cape Town is home to many inspiring South Africans and we took the opportunity to talk to environmentalist, swimmer and public speaker Lewis Pugh on February 15, during Responsible Tourism Week.

When we received an e-mail saying we’d won an eight-day trip to Cape Town, after we entered at the Dutch Vakantiebeurs 2011 travel expo, we almost didn’t believe it, but we soon realised that it was true and we then looked forward to a great time.
And what an exciting and interesting programme of events we had!

New York, we’ll see your SoHo and TriBeCa and raise it with our own Foundry, Downtown and Union Kloof. With six hoods named, the launch party for Hood 8 took place at the arena at Wembley Square on Thursday evening, 1 August 2013.

Local tour operator Coffeebeans Routes takes “dinner and a show” to new heights with their recently launched Theatre Tour. The setting for this unique experience is the Baxter Theatre Centre at the University of Cape Town, renowned as a vibrant cultural centre with a good relationship with the local and university communities.

Camps Bay sunset, photo courtesy Neil Howard
“It was the cooling hour, just when the rounded red sun sinks down behind the azure hill…”
Cape Town is a city of such magnificent natural beauty that one would be justified in quoting Lord Byron when speaking of it – more so because this specific poem speaks of a city with a mountain to one side and a deep, calm sea to the other.

The Rainbow Experience, a multi-level concept store, launched at Cape Town hotel and lifestyle complex Mandela Rhodes Place on Tuesday, September 1.
Described as a destination store that showcases South African innovation and design, The Rainbow Experience is set around the story, life and leadership of former president Nelson Mandela. The store offers an espresso bar and internet café, experiential learning workshops and a documentary movie experience of Mr Mandela’s life, as well as design works, music, fashion, gifts and creative events space. From October, the store will also host jazz jam sessions.